Dolphins quarterback Chad Pennington has veto power when it comes to building a game plan for Sunday’s game. Offensive coordinator Dan Henning says he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Something must be working because Pennington has put together four games with a passer rating over 100, and the Dolphins passing game seems to be blossoming.

Now Henning’s focus turns to the running game, where the Dolphins will be “swinging hard” for its first 100-yard effort in three games.

During this unfiltered, the Dolphins’ offensive coordinator explains why he didn’t initially want Pennington, why input from quarterbacks is important, how the injury report impacts his game plan, and if the Dolphins are ready to get into a shoot out with Denver’s high-octane offense.

What was your initial reaction to hearing the Dolphins would acquire Chad Pennington back in training camp?

Hennings: “I was excited about it because I had him as a rookie. Then I retired for a year and came back and he was up there and I was in Carolina. I always thought he was one of the smartest guys I had been around. I take pride in the fact that as a rookie, that’s the only year that he had a higher quarterback rating than he does now. He was only in six plays, but his quarterback rating was 127. I was excited about him because, the long and short of it was, to be honest with you, when we got Chad, I wasn’t real happy about it in New York. We had Vinny Testaverde, we had Ray Lucas who had won six games for us the year before when Vinny was hurt and we had just lost Keyshawn (Johnson). I thought with one of our choices that we would take a wide receiver and we had four first round draft choices in that draft. All of the guys that we took in that first round that year are still playing, and that’s nine years ago. The defensive end is in Atlanta (John Abraham), the one defensive tackle (Shaun Ellis) at New York is still there and (Anthony) Becht went to Tampa and I think he’s at St. Louis now, and Chad. When we took Chad, I asked Coach (Bill) Parcells, ‘I thought you were going to get us a receiver here, we lost Keyshawn’. He said, ‘When you have an opportunity and you have an extra first, (in this case we had more than one) to get a quarterback like this, you take him’. Chad came in and I could see why he wanted him. I was excited about it then as I was excited about it this time around.”

Does Pennington get fiery in the huddle, and is he the type of quarterback his teams needed?

“Yeah, I think that’s a good analysis. I think if you all grew up in the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s, and if your father was a good guy, most of the time he was a good guy, but if you got out of line or if things weren’t going well, he could show his side; that side, that look, that word, and Chad does that. He doesn’t show it to many people because his natural personality is very affable. He can get very fired up and excited and demanding and has done so on occasion. When he walked in here for the first day, he had an agenda, he had what I call, ‘the gotta’. If you remember the book and the movie, ‘The Misery’, this guy has ‘the gotta’. He wants it, he wants it bad enough to do whatever it takes and it rubs off on these other players. That was very good for this team at this point in time and very good for Chad, also. I think it was like a rebirth for him, also. I think it got a little stale there, nobody’s fault, but it happens.”

What’s Pennington is like in the meeting room. Does he provide a lot of feedback?

“A lot, a lot and he’s not the only one. John Beck and (Chad) Henne also have feedback and input. I believe in ownership. I believe in the offense being owned by the players, particularly the quarterback has to own the passing game. We put the plays in and we send them the game plan on Tuesday night and if he comes in and he doesn’t like something, we throw it out. There’s no need, we’ve got enough. There’s a lot of offense that we deal with and if he’s not comfortable with it, either by play, design or player, then we shift it around or get rid of it. Then he might have an idea, too, because all three of them stay late in the afternoon to look at tape, discuss. (Quarterbacks coach) David Lee had them on a project yesterday about taking Denver and breaking them down strictly by 3-4, 4-3 and downs, distances and everything. They stayed and they took the four-game breakdown and they did it, they did the whole work. We give them a lot of feedback. I believe in ownership. I think this is a player’s game.

Why is ownership important?

“A lot of people think this is a coach’s game and there’s a great deal of involvement by the coaches, but this is a player’s game. I don’t care what kind of design, what kind of X’s and O’s you put on that paper, if you don’t have the players and you don’t have the players committed to doing what you’re doing then you’re in trouble. I used to have a guy, Al Conover was the head coach at Rice, we worked together at one time. He used to draw those X’s and O’s up and he’d draw the O’s as offensive players and the X’s as defensive players. First day of the week, he’d draw all of those O’s up and then he’d put a little o here and a big X here to let you know who the big stud was that week. It doesn’t matter if you don’t take care of that business what else you do. There’s a line coach coming to you and says, ‘Hey, we can’t go one-on-one with this guy, what are we going to do this week’. When the players own it, they see those things even more than we do and they feel it. When they give you that input, it’s a good thing to listen. We don’t just give them carte blanche but we want to hear explanations, we want to know why, just like when we give it to them, they want to know why. There’s a lot of give and take there.”

Speaking of big studs, how much of a problem would defending Joey Porter be if you were on the opposite side?

“We don’t see anybody that’s on a tear like Joey’s right now. I think the defensive coaches have made adjustments in personnel and shifted people around earlier in the season. I think it’s all worked out for the best. I think both outside guys are doing well and Joey over on that right side is a force. I’m glad he’s on our side. There’s always guys down the road that you look at. You try to wait until the week you’re going to see them before you start worrying about it because other than that you don’t get a lot of sleep.”

Who is Porter like based on your experience?

“He’s the atypical outside, right side pass rusher and very, very aggressive. I was with Julius Peppers in Carolina and he played mostly on the offense’s right side the time I was up there, but occasionally we’d go into the left. He’s not the same type of player. Joey’s much more actively aggressive where I think Julius is a little bit bigger, a little bit stronger, maybe not quite as quick, but I don’t want to have to line up against any of those types of people on a regular basis. Those guys are the elite. You don’t find them very often. I think right now Joey is playing like an elite outside pass rusher.”

Do you keep injury reports in mind when making the game plan because it seemed like you went after the injured Terrence McGee often against the Bills?

“Absolutely, we consider our own self first and our own injury situation first. Our personnel department and our public relations department leave something on my desk every morning, the updates. They give us the updates on what’s going on in that town, what are people saying in the paper, what is the National Football League injury report from that team. There’s no question we take all of that into consideration. He was injured. I don’t coach their team so I don’t know what their alternatives were, but he was injured. After he got beat on the first play, psychologically he might have been injured a little bit. He came back and competed later on. It’s never going to be easy, but any little thing that you can get, you try and reach out and use it.”

Do you think you have the personnel to get into a shootout with Denver?

“I hadn’t thought about that to be honest with you. We’ll have to take it as it goes. We don’t want to get in a shootout; that’s not Coach (Tony) Sparano’s vision for what we do and what we do on offense and defense. Last week we got behind by nine with about six minutes gone in the third quarter. Now you’ve got to do some things to get back into the game quickly and we were able to do that. We’ll have to see when the time comes. At the end of the Jets game and at the end of the Ravens game, we were quite a bit behind and we had to come back and we got part way there. That will be an interesting thing if it happens and we’ll have to see what happens when it gets there.”

Is there a theory why this team isn’t running well out of the base offense?

“First of all I have to mention Andy Khia. Andy Khia is a good friend of mine from up in Spartanburg, he works at Wofford where we used to train when I was with Carolina. He’s a younger guy, a good guy, a former baseball coach, but he used to tell me when we played golf together, ‘Swing as hard as you can, you might hit it’. We are swinging as hard as we can. The success of the running game is a function of blocking. People have determined, I’m not using this as one way or another, but people have determined that our strength is the two backs that carry the ball around here. They have determined that they are going to stop the run so we’ve been able to pass the ball more effectively on first and second down than we thought we would have and we haven’t been able to run the ball as effectively on first and second down as we thought we would be able to. If you take the give and take there, I think we’re number one in the league in yards per attempt; we’re number one in the league in yards per anything on first down. Where we struggle, we struggle with converting third downs right now and running the ball in an effective manner on a regular basis. We are doing whatever it takes, design wise, study wise, practice wise, and motivationally wise to try and get that done.”

So what did you take from this? And based on what you’ve seen. Do the Dolphins have the firepower to get into a shootout with Denver?

Comments (39 Comments)

We don’t wnat a shootout with Denver. We need to pound the rock, keep Cutler, Marshall and Royal off the field and take advantage of Denvers D. Take your shots with play action down the field. That’s the formula here.

O, what a great interview. Henning comes off to me as a very bright guy. Playing to his players strengths, taking what the defense gives him, and exploiting any weakness he can find in the oposing team. And his main goal is having his players take accountability? Amazing what a difference a good coordinator and a good QB can make!

It looks like Henning is high on John Beck as well. I wonder if that is the reason they are keeping him around.
Also I have to agree that teams are gearing up to stop the run because at the end of the day you would rather take your chances getting beat by a Penne floater than having R&R ram it down your throat, now that goes for anyone in the league, you always want to stop the run, but more so against a team with a weak armed QB and suspect WR’s.
That’s the 1st time I have heard of a QB having veto power over the game plan, I know audibles and all that, but chaning the gameplan? 1st time for me.
Also everyone in the league attacks injured guys on the opp team, that is why Belicheat and Satan would hide the injury report like Hoffa’s body. I would expect nothing less from Henning as far as attacking a team’s weak link.
Joey is a beast and I hope he keeps it up.
Now that Crowder has showed up a lil more, still not to the level of saying keep him w/o thinking twice, but enough to keep the defense playing at a nice level. We need Roth to step it up. He hasn’t had a sack since when? game 3? He has been victimized on the edge and teams are starting to target the edges of the defense with the run. So Roth is now my target for “guy who needs to play better”, especially since J Allen has finally been found and has been productive.

Nice interview Omar. They started to run the from their base formation more in the last game. I wish they’d done it more in the baltimore game. It seemed like during the baltimore and houston game they didnt run it like that as much and we lost.
I’ll tell you right now we might not be a playoff team but nobody wants to play us. It’ll be a battle for them.

Good interview, O.
The thing that has impressed me about Henning is what I’ve seen from the offense. I thought we’d be much more vanilla and predictable. He’s done a good job mixing it up.
The running game starts up front. We’re about to play game 8. The OL should be building chemistry by now. The offense seems to be progressing.
Hey at 3-4, I’m a happy fan after last year. This team can compete and they’re fun to watch.

Big fan of Henning. Always makes the most of his personnel. My question is: who on the line isn’t getting it done? It seems like Smiley and Long are strong run blockers. That used to be Carey’s strength too. Is it Satele? Ike? Carey? Donald Thomas is still an unknown for next year, and the guess here is that Carey isn’t resigned. Thinking Miami will draft at least one OL and one DL next year, and maybe 2 OL if Carey walks. Still a work in progress…

I saw a stat earlier in the week about how the vast majority of our rushing yards were up the middle (between the guards). Reflecting back on the games, I guess thats not a surprise. However, my perception was that our best run blockers are on the left, but thats not shown in the numbers.

convict, my eyes tell me that our backs like to run to the left regardless of the design of the play. I keep seeing ricky/ronnie skip to the left when they’re trying to go up the middle. There have been some exceptions, mostly on the Wildcat (did you ever notice how the reverses/options always run towards the side of the field where the cameras are? Is there a NFL conspiracy controlling the direction of the plays for best camera angles?), but for the most part they seem to be trying to get behind Smiley. I don’t think this is designed, but I think the backs trust if they can’t go straight up the middle, that shifting to the left behind Smiley they’re more likely to find a gap than to the right behind Ndukwe. It’s something that I’ve noticed but can’t make a 100% accurate claim to. It could all be in my head.

convict, are you telling me that Ronnie had a 67 yard run for TD up the right side against the pats and other than that he has 21 carries for 16 yards?
The sideline stats make sense, there isn’t a back in this league that can beat defenses to the sideline. You occasionally see it in College and its common in High School, but no NFL defense is going to allow that very often.

I take from the stats that we don’t call many plays to the left side,and even when we do, we have a mediocre avg going that way. Which begs the question, if thats the case, why does Omar think the C, RG, and RT need improvement?

convict you answered your own question because the stats to the right side are lower than the ones to the left.
It’s all subjective anyway because everyone’s moving when the ball is handed off. The guards are pulling, the line is shifting/stunting. How do you keep accurate stats of that stuff? For example, on that particular run, Smiley and Long were lined up on the right side and Ronnie ran between Carey who was playing right guard and Smiley and long who were playing RT and TE on the unbalanced line. So technically he ran ‘between the tackles’ so it was NOT an up the middle run, but a run to the right as I called it from memory.

BTW, since youtube added High quality option, didn’t they just make the videos really really low quality so when you click on high quality it’s the old version but it looks so much better your eyes fool you into thinking you’re watching high quality?

Omar:
Finally you said it. I have asked you several times to rate the play of Satele. And now Henning has confirmed — we have good backs and need more blocking to run. And perhaps Carey since he is a free agent should go. This line needs more talent!
One other thing. Remember, when Jimmy took over and he would not let Marino even audible?!!! And now we hear Henning say his QB must be comfortable with the game plan and plays. Quite a difference!

O,
I asked you for your insight on Satele’s play a couple weeks ago, but I don’t believe I ever heard a response. I’ve been gone for a week or more, so maybe i just missed it. How’s he doing in your assessment?

Mr Bungle, you were right, but I’m still right that Ronnie went right of the guard. But at what point does it become running to the right or running up the middle? Either way, Smiley and Long created the hole.

great answers, espescially on the shootout question!!! no bullentin board material. great interview, i am even more impressed by the design of his answers than anything i have read in awhile. GREAT JOB!! henning because of the lack of success as a head coach, he doesn’t get the popularity as martz, norv turner, etc… but the way he uses people, and the team strength is evident in his gameplans. no wonder carolina went to superbowl. my only knock so far has been the ginn usage, but after last week i am not complaining, for those of you who remember my post name, you know i was one of the REAL FEW who applauded the ginn pick!!! thanks for the interview

Omar,
Great interview. I was very impressed that you asked him about going after McGee who was coming back from an injury last week & I was surprised he told you the truth! I love that we went at McGee early to test him out. I think that if you wait & don’t go after the injured player right away, you run the risk of allowing that guy to get more comfortable & more confident as the game goes on.
On the other side of the ball, I want to see our secondary get very physical with Stokely & Scheffler if they play. I’d love to see Jason Allen put his hands all over Stokely to test out that injury. That’s the beauty of having a big, strong CB! We also need to hit the RB’s extra hard. Pittman has bruised ribs & is probably going to be their starter. In addition to Torain coming off an injury, he also hasn’t had a carry in the NFL. I’d like to Ferguson give the rookie Torain a extra warm welcome.

Ok guys don’t get mixed up between the unfiltered with payers where Omar gets some one on one time and the coach unfiltered which is a press briefing with lots of journalists and the coach at the podium.
That said, what were you wearing at this press briefing, Omar?

You gotta think Denver will be ready for the run so I think we test em but be ready to pass the ball. Pass when the think we will run and run when they think we might pass.
Where is the crank it up motion they started the year with. Get Langford and Merlin and Roth pumped.

“You gotta think Denver will be ready for the run so I think we test em but be ready to pass the ball. Pass when the think we will run and run when they think we might pass.”
richmon, I agree and Henning has done a good job mixing it up this year. I have to say in the past I could predict what we are going to do. This year, not so much. : )

The Fins should be able to methodically move the ball down the field, with the run and pass, on the Denver D, thus keeping the ball out of Cutler’s hands and avoid a shoot out. But if Cutler srikes quickly, I think Chad could do that too, I hear the Denver pass D is not very good.

Tinshaker – Henning did not say the O line is not blocking well for the backs, he said opposing D’s are aiming to stop the run, and so limiting their production and opening up plays for the pass. It’s the usual “take what the D gives you” approach. He also said the Fins are #1 in yds rush per attempt, with a stat like that how could you say the O line is not getting it done?
Do we need to upgrade the O line? Not sure, maybe, maybe not. Few teams can run well consistently with 8 men in the box, and our O line seems to be giving Chad good protection on pass plays.
Talk about quality on the O line! It would be hard to find many other teams to compare with the Fins.
LT – #1 pick
RT – #1 pick
LG – Smiley, 5yr 25M contract, Parcells does not pay that for chop liver
C – #2 pick
RG – a fill in here due to injury, this spot probably needs improvement if Donald Thomas is not back healthy next year. But the Fins have bigger needs to fill with the #1 thru #3 picks.
My top three need areas?How about a stud inside backer to compliment Crowder, a top shelf WR and another “true” top shelf NT to back up Ferguson, assuming guys at these positions are available in the draft, and assuming Solali does not improve at NT.
Secondary? leave it alone if J Allen can get “smart” at CB we are set there with W Allen on the other side and R Hill and Bell making a good safety combo, IMO. Goodman and Lehan are good dime guys and backups.

Sparano, Henning, both were quick to insert Beck into an Interveiw answers last week. Both Henne and Beck would be like having Elway and Brees coming up through your system. These are the types of QB’s not that they are Elway and Brees. They are both training under a Parcells, Henning, David lee system with Pennington as the professor. The Dolphins are fortunate to have such quality 1,2,3 in place and the list of mentors. Henne’s is the consensus #2, Beck is not that far behind. Pennington has said Beck is a sponge and quick study who works hard, he included Henne also. The tell tale is when Pennington comes to the sidelines watch the interaction between Beck and Pennington Henne is watching but Beck is almost charting, or assembling information for Pennington. I’m a big beliver in the QB system Miami has in place, because we’ve ceased talking and writing about it that alone speaks volumes for the system in place. So next year in the draft we can figure out how to get a receiver like Mike Crabtree from Texas Tech.

This is a big game for Miami if they want to have a chance at being in the playoff hunt.
If they win this game they go to 4-4 and 4-3 in the AFC. With where a lot of other teams are right now, the Dolphins have a shot at a wildcard. If they lose this game, they’re 3-5 and 3-4 in the AFC. Big difference.

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About the author

OMAR KELLY was unsuccessful at achieving his childhood dream to become a super hero, so he figured he'd do the next best thing and become a journalist who fights against injustice, and searches for truth. After being bored to death reporting news and covering politics, he switched to sports.
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IZZY GOULD joined the Sun Sentinel in Feb. 2012 as a Senior Sports Reporter on the Miami Dolphins beat. He came to South Florida fresh off covering the University of Alabama football program, including its 2011 national championship team. More